“The mountain sheep are sweeter, But the valley sheep are fatter; We therefore deemed it meeter To carry off the latter.” – Thomas Love Peacock

Some deals appear designed to separate the sheep from the goats, and today’s deal might just be one of them.

Let us say you reach the normal contract of four spades and receive the lead of a club, the unbid suit. What could be easier than to win dummy’s ace, draw trump in three rounds, then play three rounds of diamonds? If West wins the third diamond, you are home free. If East takes the trick, then unless the defense can work out to cash three heart tricks, you are also home in comfort. If nothing works, blame the cards, a curse, or the failure of your lucky horseshoe.

A more reliable approach is to win the club lead, cash the spade ace and queen, then lead a low diamond, intending to play low from hand if East puts on the seven. You know that West will have to take the trick, after which nothing is likely to hurt you, unless diamonds do not break, in which case you probably were doomed anyway. Say East splits his diamond honors. Then you win the trick, return to dummy by drawing the third round of trump, and advance the diamond four. If East wastes his diamond queen, dummy’s eight will take the third diamond. Therefore East must duck, and so do you, letting West take the trick. The attraction of this line is that it guarantees you 10 winners, since two of dummy’s hearts will go on your good diamonds.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: Double two spades to show cards and, implicitly, tolerance for partner’s overcalled suit. In just about any auction in which the opponents bid and raise a suit, a double is for takeout, not penalties. Similarly when partner overcalls, your first double almost always shows the unbid suit(s).